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It all started with a little man and an even smaller budget.
When Eddie Merrins took over as the UCLA golf coach in 1975, the school allotted him just $6,000 for his first year leading the Bruins. That was meant to cover scholarships, salaries, travel, tournament expenses, equipment and whatever else it takes to run a team. It wasn’t anywhere near enough to convince top players, even those from nearby, to come to Westwood.
Merrins, who had embarked already on what would be a historic tenure as the head professional at Bel-Air Country Club, had a small idea to use his network of golf connections.
“I formed what I called my top 100 club,” Merrins told GGP. “I went to 100 people in the Los Angeles area at different golf clubs and asked them to contribute $100 to the UCLA program.”
The result was a rallying cry of epic proportions.
John Anderson, a tax attorney whose name is on the UCLA School of Management, took interest in Merrins’ cause and wanted to do far more than contribute $100. Anderson asked Merrins to gather a potential donor from every club in the area and invite them for a luncheon at Los Angeles Country Club, where Anderson would entertain and lead a discussion about how the UCLA golf program could be supported better.
“You see these kids coming up who benefit and then you see them giving back, and that makes all the difference in the world.”
John Hoffman
The people who came together represented the origin story of Friends of Golf, a charitable organization known for its one-day tournament held annually at Bel-Air. What began as a modest support of one college golf team has blossomed into a burgeoning nationwide fundraising effort for dozens of college and high school golf programs, juniors in the Southern California Golf Association, caddies in the Western Golf Association and countless others. Since its inception just more than 40 years ago, Friends of Golf has raised more than $7 million.
“If you don’t help the game at the grass-roots level like that, it’s going to die on the vine,” said Merrins, now 88 years old. “We’ve all responded to help one another and we continue to do it because it’s the right thing for golf.”
It would be easy to stop here and simply acknowledge a story about a group of golf lovers who have gathered together every year for four decades to play in a shotgun start while figuring out additional ways to help young golfers. That alone is worthy of celebration. However, the essence of FOG goes far deeper. As Byron Nelson once famously quipped, “It’s the finest one-day tournament of its kind in the country.”
What makes it that way?
The real turning point came in 1984 when Merrins encountered Lee Trevino, who had just won his sixth major at the PGA Championship at Shoal Creek, and asked him to be the FOG tournament honoree the following year. When Trevino agreed, it began a new tradition of a high-profile honoree coming to Bel-Air and creating significant buzz for the event. Just about everyone you can name in golf has come – Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Sam Snead, Annika Sörenstam, Kathy Whitworth, Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson included.
Merrins jokes that his two “white whales” are Tom Watson and Tiger Woods, but if those are the only two legends missing from the list, that’s still a remarkable collection of honorees.
One chance meeting describes that better than any other. Back in 1991, when Nicklaus was the FOG honoree, a 15-year-old Woods came to the event to represent Southern California junior golf. It was the first encounter between Nicklaus and Woods, widely considered the two best players of all-time.
At the clinic, Merrins asked Woods to hit several variations of a 3-iron in front of Nicklaus and the crowd of enthralled spectators. Woods offered a detailed explanation of how he was doing it.
“Jack was visibly impressed, as you would think,” Merrins said. “When it was his turn to speak, he turned to Tiger and said, ‘It’s a pleasure to get to know you after hearing so much about you, but what I see leads me to believe that when it’s all said and done, you will have won as many Masters as Arnold and I put together.’ ”
Woods has “only” reached half of the 10 green jackets Palmer and Nicklaus combined to win, but the story lives as a tribute to the greatness that has come together at FOG’s outings. Merrins also is quick to remind everyone involved that sometimes your playing partner in the tournament, whether it’s a PGA Tour pro or not, could be a good person to know. Just ask Hale Irwin, who came as the 1990 co-honoree and was paired with USGA president Grant Spaeth. When Spaeth learned that Irwin’s U.S. Open exemption had expired and that the two-time winner of the event would not be invited to Medinah later that year, Spaeth immediately got on the phone and asked his board of directors to offer Irwin a spot.
That June, Irwin shot 67 in the final round and won his third U.S. Open in a playoff with Mike Donald.
While fun stories involving golf’s legends serve as FOG’s front porch, the bones of the house are rooted firmly in giving back both monetarily and through recognizing influential people in the game. University programs at the heart of this – UCLA, USC, Pepperdine, Long Beach State, Arizona State, Arizona and more than 40 others – have benefited while FOG also serves as a co-sponsor of the Ben Hogan Award given to the top college golfer of the year. Former Heisman Trophy winner Tom Harman, a chairman of FOG and a member at Bel-Air, convinced his close friend Hogan to have his name on the trophy and in a small way has elevated college golf. FOG also awards the Dinah Shore Trophy for the top female collegiate golfer who excels on the course and in the classroom.
While the college donations have been fruitful – Merrins eventually led UCLA to a national championship in 1988, after all – FOG’s influence with younger individuals may be more profound. FOG gives annual grants through the California Interscholastic Federation to provide high school kids with resources to play, and they provide an additional donation to inner-city schools where golf can sometimes be a foreign concept. Another major benefactor is the Southern California Junior Golf Foundation, which has a thriving PGA Junior Golf League program thanks to the investment FOG has made.
John Hoffman, FOG president and tournament chairman, noted that the donations made to various junior programs are the most tangible in that you can immediately see how the money helps kids enjoy the game.
“We had a kid who had one shirt and one pair of shorts that he could wear to the lessons,” Hoffman said. “One of our board members brought his son out and played with him and he learned through one of the people at SCPGA Junior that he just has the same clothes all the time. He bought him four shirts and four pairs of shorts and the kid thought he had just made the big time.
Each year at the FOG tournament, a benefiting junior gives a speech at the dinner and typically leaves the 270 or so attendees in a puddle of tears. Samantha Rocha, a former Occidental College golfer, gave an emotional thank you to FOG last year for the support it provided in getting her a scholarship that allowed her to attend college. Rocha served as captain of the team, was on the dean’s list all four years and is now in medical school.
“You’re not human if you aren’t touched by some of these stories,” Hoffman said.
With all that has happened with the COVID-19 pandemic, FOG was unable to have a tournament in 2020 and is uncertain about what the future holds next year. Rather than raising something like $1.5 million like they did when Dustin Johnson was the honoree a few years ago, this year’s total will be significantly less. The event’s sponsors have remained steadfast in their support, but the lack of an actual tournament at Bel-Air means a lot less money being collected.
Despite the disappointment, the undeniable spirit of FOG proves it will carry on regardless of circumstance. It’s alive in every affected golfer and the “friends” who helped them along the way.
“We always wanted to give more than we received,” Merrins said. “And when you do that, it’s incredible what can happen.”
Top: Brooks Koepka, 2019 tournament honoree, with FOG co-founder Eddie Merrins and Southern California Golf Association juniors Sophia Sandoval and Jesse Palazuelos.
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